Hyderabad: With the government not being able to control the illegal smuggling and exporting of rare red sandalwood, the interstate and international bootleggers are minting a good amount of money and flourishing in the state.
Using cheap labours from Tamil Nadu and local gangs who continue to cut off the 'red gold', these smugglers are able to export the pricey wood internationally.
The red sandalwood is primarily grown in four districts of Andhra Pradesh in 5 lakh hectares - Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor and Nellore and mostly in Sheshachalam forests. According to police records, Kadapa district alone has 50 big smugglers.
Catering to the huge demand for it in the international market, the smugglers are able to by-pass the law and order by paying huge sums to the dealers.
Red sanders have three categories. The first category is priced at a whopping Rs 1 crore for a ton of logs in the international market. Even the government in its auction buys a ton of red sanders for Rs 1 crore.
Smuggling involves a big process where chopping off and shifting one tree takes a day. Usually, the workers employed to work on the farms are migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu who agree to be a part of the violence and are ready to even die since they are offered a large sum of money.
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and countries like China are the major importers of the red sandalwood.
Due to lack of vigilance and despite efforts to check to smuggle, the officials fail to prevent the illegal exporting of the red sanders.
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Reportedly, bigwigs are involved who employ local goons and gangs to carry out the groundwork for them. Some also allege that the police and forest staff also support smuggling. That is why while the local smugglers are being caught, the international members of smuggling gangs are not being caught.
There is also criticism that MLAs and MPs are also involved in the smuggling and although the intelligence wing has information on the same, the sleuths dare not to take action.
According to police, local gangs help in shifting the woods in containers for exporting to other places like Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan.
They also claim that between 2014-18, 50 big smugglers and hundreds of their followers were caught. However, from 2019-20 no one was caught.
Recently, international smuggler Bhasha Bhai and 11 other workers of his were caught by the police. There are 14 cases in Kadapa and 11 in Ananthapur districts on him.
The police department is on the move to nab international smugglers from China, Malaysia and Dubai.
Even if the police is able to nab some of these smugglers, they are only punished with a one-year jail term and after release, the smugglers get back to illegal business.
Only if someone is caught smuggling four times, the Police books illegal transporters under the Preventive detention (PD) Act.
Since there is no honour among thieves, the gangsters try and loot the product while one gang tries to transport it.
First, they make agreements for lakhs of rupees with Tamil workers to shift the red sanders to the destinations. When the red sander logs move out of the forest borders the local gangs follow them and loot the products.
In one such accident on December 2, three vehicles of red sanders were torched at Gotur village in Vallur Mandal and five Tamil workers were burnt alive.
A similar accident took place in 2017, in which 7 Tamil workers died when their vehicle carrying sanders fell into a lake in Vontimitta. Their family members are now in dire situations.
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Due to the financial crisis after the lockdown due to Coronavirus pandemic more such workers are agreeing to work for illegal cutting and shifting of red sanders.
There is an immediate need to find a solution through a strong action plan to protect the red sanders irrespective of party lines otherwise, there will be unchecked imports of red sanders as usual.
